1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a press operation device used in an electronic equipment provided in a vehicle and the like.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, as an operation device installed in various electronic equipments, a press operation device is known. For example, in a case of being installed in a vehicle such as a car, such a press operation device is used for operating an electronic equipment of the vehicle such as an air conditioner, a car navigation system, or a car audio system.
An example of such a press operation device is disclosed in the following Patent Document 1. This press operation device is provided with a plurality of operation members 110 (FIG. 9) and a holding member 130 (FIG. 10) holding the operation members 110. As illustrated in FIG. 9, the operation member 110 includes an operated part 111 that is press-operated, sidewalls 112 formed on a back side of the operated part 111, and engaged parts 113 that are engaged by the holding member 130. As illustrated in FIG. 10, the holding member 130 includes a plurality of holding parts 132 divided from each other by a partition wall 131. The holding parts 132 each have a shape capable of respectively holding each of the operation members 110. Further, each of the holding parts 132 includes a first insertion hole 133 and a second insertion hole 134 allowing the engaged parts 113 of the operation member 110 to be respectively inserted thereinto. The engaged parts 113 are respectively inserted into the insertion holes 133, 134 and become in contact with a back side of the holding member 130. Thereby, the operation member 110 is held by the holding part 132.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2011-009132
In the press operation device described in Patent Document 1, in order to allow insertion of the engaged parts 113, a dimension of each of the insertion holes 133, 134 in an aligned direction (left-right direction in FIG. 10) of the insertion holes must be configured to be larger than a thickness dimension that is a sum of a dimension of the sidewall 112 in the aligned direction and a dimension of the engaged part 113 in the aligned direction. This can lead to problems, for example, such as the following.    (1) In a case such as when an impact is applied to the press operation device, the engaged parts 113 of the plurality of the operation members 110 may slip out from respective insertion holes 133, 134. Therefore, there is a possibility that the operation members 110 may simultaneously drop out from the holding member 130.    (2) The holding member 130 is prevented from being reduced in size in the aligned direction, which prevents the operation member 110 from being reduced in size in the same direction. Specifically, there is a case where a light source for illuminating the operated part 111 of the operation member 110 is provided on a printed circuit board arranged on the back side of the holding member 130. In this case, in order to secure an illumination range of the light source, it is necessary that a dimension between the first insertion hole 133 and the second insertion hole 134 of the holding part 132 in the aligned direction be equal to or larger than a predetermined dimension. As described above, the dimension of each of the insertion holes 133, 134 in the aligned direction is configured to be larger than the thickness dimension. Therefore, it is unavoidable that the holding parts 132 each become large in the aligned direction and thus it is also unavoidable that the operation members 110 each become large in the aligned direction. \